At a time of solar max, on a winter night, why are 40 and 80 meters dead? A DX reflector site currently shows QSOs occurring only between european stations on 40 with no transatlantic QSOs taking place. Same story on 80m. I have observed this repeatedly lately. Yet daytime 10m conditions have been good, with DX propagation from sunrise to a little after sunset, as I would expect during a sunspot cycle peak.

At a time of solar max, on a winter night, why are 40 and 80 meters dead? A DX reflector site currently shows QSOs occurring only between european stations on 40 with no transatlantic QSOs taking place. Same story on 80m. I have observed this repeatedly lately. Yet daytime 10m conditions have been good, with DX propagation from sunrise to a little after sunset, as I would expect during a sunspot cycle peak.

Lower bands, like 40 meters down to 160 meters, are better during the solar minimum. They are still OK at the solar max if we are not having geomagnetic storms, but generally the best time for 160 through 40 is the solar minimum.

Low bands suffer from low activity, and from local noise. Switching power supplies are just killing the low bands in crowded areas.

Wrong bands maybe. 60 meters yielded an OY, two Israeli stations and a number of common Europeans late last night. Nothing wrong with low band propagation, but I'm detecting a normal uptick in seasonal noise.

Warmer weather in much of the US is providing welcome competition to radio operating. Three days ago St Louis saw a low of 4 degrees f. Yesterday I washed the road salt from our cars amid temps in the low 60s. 70s are predicted for Monday.

I don't routinely work DX on 80, but I have not noticed any issues on 40, other than activity does seem to be down. During a recent QSO, myself and Tom DF2BO both noticed how quiet 40 seemed to be. However, the band was in good shape, as both of us were peaking 30 over S9. I routinely work DX stations on 40 at night/early morning in Europe, the Middle East, South Africa and South America. I've not heard many Asian and Australian stations, but usually they are harder to hear on the East Coast using the low bands.

Hams have only so much free time to spend on the air--if they are busy on the high bands, they don't have time to get on the low bands.

80 and 160 certainly aren't dead--in the past week I've worked UA2 and SM0 on 160, and Asiatic Russia on 80, all with 100 watts and wire verticals on a 1/3 acre suburban lot. But, I've done even better on 10M...

Last year, when 10 wasn't so hot, I spent much more time on 80 and worked DXCC on that band in 7 weeks, and got the QSLs for 5BDXCC before mid-March This year, I put up an 10 meter dipole and made 250 QSOs in the ARRL CW, and another 200+ in the phone contest, all on 10M. I was able to run Europeans on 10 CW--no amp required....

Maybe it was just that night at my QTH that 40 and 80 seemed dead. I only spent a short time listening. 10m sure has been cookin lately. I worked Greenland, Sierra Leone, Argentina, and several Russians earlier this evening before things shut down. 20m is open all over now. Good times!

About a week ago 80 and 40 were red hot in the evenings. I wouldn't have known by listening or watching DX spots. I started calling CQ and ended up working dozens of EU stations on both bands on several different nights. Signals were very strong. I was watching and working the gray line as it crossed the EU. It was amazing!

40 has been consistently very good. Keep in mind that most Europeans are sleeping during our evening times, say 7-11 pm. With the recent time change it gets busier towards Europe after midnight (EDST). Saturday evening had many, many, strong Russian stations active in the Russian DX Contest.

DX on 40 mtr is very good this winter in evening.Already good since 10 yrs, maybe even 70 yrs.

Never realy tried on 80 mtrs for Dx, but it was good 3-5 yrs. ago.

I just only work Dx on 20 mtrs and am not interested at all in DX.That is why i sold my full size vertical for 80 and got back to NVIS antenna for 80 and On 40 mtrs i used my 80 mtr vertical as a half wave with tuning circuit at bottom of antenna.Worked perfect Dx on 80 and 40 mtrs, and I made skeds on DX 40 mtrs often with my friend in PZ.

Friend died a few years ago, never worked DX again on 80/40 mtrs.Could work him in any sked I ever made on 40 mtrs between PZ and PA both in summer as in winter all year around.

High angle often goes away after sunset on 80 and the European DX guys go to bed. They are 5 hours ahead in the winter. The sun sets later on the left coast so good propagaion out there takes longer to develop into the Northeast. I must say, though, that 40 has been good at night to somewhere. Doesn't seem dead in New England. Lots of DX on 40, same proplem with Europeans going to bed though. A quarter wave vertical on 40 with a good counterpoise will work very well on 40 just about anywhere in he US after dark. Ten should be enjoyed while we can. I'd like to see a little more on six, though.

Forty meters was much better two to three years ago and in the past year has been so so, the long haul DX is there but the signals seem down here on the NE unless you have a beam up 70' or better. On 75m its be good for EU but going back 5-6 years it was much better, even the guys with the beams and the 4SQ arrays are complaining so maybe in the next five years will see more on these lower bands but this sunspot cycle has seemed to be long in the tooth compared to the years between 1999 and 2002 on the high bands, not the best I have seen but at least the activity was good and all the bands were open almost all night, I was working JA's past 12 at night on both 15&10 but here again the low bands suffered then as well. The low bands will get better in just a few years and the hi bands will suck wind then the crowds and clowns come back, lol.

Copyright 2000-2015 eHam.net, LLC
eHam.net is a community web site for amateur (ham) radio operators around the world.
Contact the site with comments or questions.
WEBMASTER@EHAM.NETSite Privacy Statement